Sotheby’s Aiming for a Chagall Record in November

Marc Chagall’s lyrical masterpiece, Les Amoureux, will highlight Sotheby’s New York Evening Sale of Impressionist & Modern Art on 14 November 2017. A stunning image of the artist’s two great loves – his childhood sweetheart and muse, Bella Rosenfeld, and his adoptive home of France – Les Amoureux encapsulates the best characteristics of Chagall’s oeuvre. The work has remained in the same family collection for nearly 90 years, having been purchased from legendary Parisian gallery Bernheim-Jeune in October of 1928 – the year it was painted.

Following its debut in Hong Kong, Les Amoureux is now on view at Sotheby’s London through 8 October. The painting returns to New York for public exhibition beginning on 3 November in our York Avenue headquarters. The enchanting oil on canvas is estimated to sell for $12/18 million during the November Evening Sale.

Sotheby’s set the current auction record for any work by Marc Chagall in May 1990, when we sold his 1923 painting Anniversaire for $14.9 million. Similar in subject matter to the present work, Anniversaire depicts the starry-eyed lovers sharing a kiss while, quite literally, floating on air.